“They don’t send me to Bridgeport,” Jan Kovar insisted. “It was a little bit different.”
After putting away his, OK, not-former team, Kovar didn’t want to go deeply into that week between when the Islanders announced they’d assigned him to Bridgeport and their parting of ways.
It seemed clear that, from his standpoint, the separation wasn’t a case of Kovar’s not reporting: that coming here wasn’t something he didn’t want to do.
“I don’t talk about that. Sometimes you listen to stories about KHL, how is it with bitter guys, some bad stories.
“But I look forward, every day, every practice.”
Kovar hopped in tonight with only a couple of Providence practices under his belt after not skating for a couple of weeks. He got more noticeable as the game went on. He said he felt “average” afterward.
When the Sound Tigers turned the puck over mid-change after the first shift of the third period, he scored on his own rebound to make it 4-1.
I had six points in these two games in the pool, so just a little off.
……
Michael Dal Colle thought last night could’ve been a turning point for Bridgeport. Tonight they’re right back where they were. It is an interminable stream of little things for Bridgeport right now. They’re adding up.
“We have so much talent and smart players, all it takes is a click or light switch to go off,” Devon Toews said, “just to see it work. Everyone can see it happen and feed off that. It’ll propel us so much farther than we’ve gone so far.”
Tanner Fritz didn’t play the back half of the third period. Brent Thompson said he wasn’t injured. “Just kind of managing him,” Thompson said. “Was trying different combinations, that’s all.” His answer about the Sebastian Aho scratch capped off the gamer.
The combinations were, in fact, all over the place for much of the second half of the game. We’ll see how they look tomorrow. Heard Alan say Scott Eansor was out with a lower-body issue suffered Friday night.
If you pay attention to plus/minus, don’t pay that close attention to tonight’s. It’s all over the place. A couple of Providence goals list four Bridgeport forwards in situations where there, without going back to check video, probably weren’t.
Prescout. Just the team that’s given them the most headaches the past two years, coming in off a big comeback, no big deal.
Bridgeport ties on all four goal scorers in Worcester’s home-opener win over Maine. Mitch Gillam with 33 saves. (A: 8,853.)
And RIP, Dick Modzelewski.